DISCLOSURE: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my Disclosure Policy for more information.
Parents often ask at what age can they begin Right Brain Education with their children. In Shichida, Heguru, and TweedleWink, children can begin attending classes from as young as 6 months. While not every family does this, there is a reason why it helps to start as early as possible. Before I explain, I would encourage you to read about what a typical Right Brain Education class is like from the following posts:
As you read through the activities that are conducted in class, you may be wondering how an infant would be able to participate. In Right Brain Education classes, one parent will attend the class with their infant and perform all the activities while their child observes. As the child grows old and develops their abilities, they will start to participate in the activities. Initially, the child will require a lot of help and assistance from their parent. Over time, the child will gradually do more on their own until they are able to do all the activities by themselves.
Infants Learn by Watching
Why should we do these activities when all our children can do at such a young age is observe? Because babies learn by watching through a process called observational learning, also known as social learning. From the moment they’re born, babies are tuned in to the people and things around them, absorbing information by looking, imitating, and forming mental models of the world.
Babies selectively focus on things that are interesting, new, or socially relevant. What they choose to watch helps them decide what is important to learn about. As they watch events unfold, babies begin to form mental representations of how things work, for example, that objects fall down, people use tools, or that a ball rolls when pushed. These models help them predict outcomes, like expecting a toy to reappear after it rolls behind a box.
Babies learn by watching because it helps them absorb information about the world, people, actions, and outcomes. They imitate, detect patterns, and update their understanding based on what they see – making observation one of their most powerful learning tools.
Babies Learn by Copying
Babies copy actions they see, like clapping, waving, or facial expressions. Even very young infants can mimic facial expressions, like sticking out the tongue. By around 8 to 12 months, they begin to imitate goal-directed actions, for example, trying to use a spoon or phone. Babies do not only watch what people do, but why they do it. They are especially interested in goals, cause-effect relationships, and emotions.
Whatever activities we perform around our babies are opportunities for them to learn to copy. Most of the time, our babies are observing us as we go on with the things we need to do in our daily lives – cooking dinner, cleaning the house, or getting the groceries. If we select the activities we perform around our babies, we are directing what they are learning. Taking an infant to Right Brain Education classes is one way we can direct their learning.
Young Children Want to Do What We Do
A child pretends to cook in the kitchen because they have been watching their father cooking. A child pretends to workout because they have seen their mother exercising. A child pretends to read a book (before they have learned to read) because they saw an older sibling reading. If we watch a lot of TV around our infants, then they will also want to watch TV. The activities that we engage in around our infants will be the activities that they will want to emulate so we must be selective about the things we do when our children are watching.
These young children are learning that exercise is important because they are watching their mothers prioritise time to work out:
We Often Underestimate What a Young Child Can Do
Too many times, we don’t start early because we think a child is too young to learn how to do this or that. We think it is too dangerous. We feel it is too messy. We believe it is too difficult. I hope the following videos can inspire you to think otherwise.
A young boy cooks food for his grandparents. Notice that he does not use “child-friendly” cooking equipment.
A 19 month old toddler demonstrates that figuring out the best way to climb up this wall comes from intuitive learning:
The following baby started snowboarding at 10 months of age:
These children in kindergarten demonstrate that children are not too young to learn complicated tasks:
The Road is Not Easy
Let’s also be realistic. The road is not easy and the path is not always smooth sailing. While I want to show the possibilities of what young children can achieve, I do not want to over simplify the process. These things did not happen easily. It takes a lot of time and effort from dedicated parents to teach and encourage a child to do these things. Just repeating things a few times is not going to magically make your child a wonder. You will encounter days when your child wants to stop, your child is not in the mood, you are tired, there is no time for it, or any other of a whole host of reasons that serve as barriers.
To illustrate a smidgen of the dedication it takes, this video of an infant learning to ride a bike provides snapshots along a timeline of the learning process.
I believe what does help is when parents are dedicated to the chosen area of learning. If it is something you are truly interested in, your child will also feel your passion for it. That can also fuel your child’s interest to continue learning. This shared interest has the added benefit of becoming an activity for parent-child bonding in later years.
Discover more from RIGHT BRAIN CHILD
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.